December 17, 2010: Mohamed Bouazizi sets himself on fire, marking the beginning of the “Arab Spring”.
Bouazizi was a twenty-six-year-old Tunisian vendor who, prior to his act of protest, had faced repeated harassment from policemen and struggled to support his family by selling produce on the street.
On the morning of December 17, Bouazizi set the stage for the revolution that has gripped the Arab world for the past year.
That morning, Bouazizi had another confrontation with the local officials who attempted to confiscate his goods and scale on the grounds that he had no permit to manage his cart. According to eyewitnesses, Bouazizi was forced to the ground and manhandled during the altercation. Afterwards, he sought to meet the governor and negotiate the return of his wares; after being refused, Bouazizi returned to the governor’s office with a can of gasoline and set himself on fire in the middle of the street. He died eighteen days later.
The aftermath was greater than Bouazizi could have possibly imagined. The youth of Tunisia received Bouazizi as a martyr and begin protesting within hours of his self-immolation, and ten days after his death, the 23-year rule of the Tunisian president ended when he fled to Saudi Arabia. Eleven days later, anti-government protests in Egypt began as well; after Egypt, protests in Syria, Yemen, Bahrain, Libya, Algeria, and throughout the rest of the Middle East began. One year later, Bouazizi’s sacrifice is not forgotten, and the protests and fight for revolution continue.
